Like the cat “Pelle” in the Swedish children's book series “Pelle Svanslös” (Peter-No-Tail), this kitten on the Indonesian Island of “Hoga” has no tail. But in contrast to “Pelle” who is a bit of an outsider for having no tail, on the Island of Hoga, this kitten is probably in the majority. Very many Indonesian cats have stumpy, kinked tails, or no tails at all!

Travellers coming to Indonesia sometimes worry that the cats are not treated well — that the tails are stumped due to malnourishment, or perhaps because Indonesian people cut the tails of their cats! In search for other explanations, I came across a curious “folk-tail” in which cats were used by royalty to safeguard their treasures. While bathing, a princess would put her rings on the cat’s tails. The cat’s tails would rot and fall off, or became kinked as a cat wrapped its tail round the rings to prevent them from falling off! Thus, all of the descendants of these royal cats are born with missing or kinked tails.

All of these explanations are of course just stories. Although bizarre, the folktale is the most “correct” in that it recognises that these cats aren't losing their tails - Indonesian cats are simply born that way. It seems that many Indonesian cats just carry a “short-tailed gene” — just as ‘Japanese Bobtail’ cats sport their characteristically “bobbed” tails because they carry recessive “short-tailed genes”.

So, if you are ever in Indonesia, there’s no need to worry — just learn to love those kinky kitten tails! = P